About Us
St Mary’s is in the delightful village of Holmbury St Mary at the centre of the Surrey Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. You are welcome to join us any Sunday or at one of our regular cafes during the week. Our rural congregation seeks to serve our local village community and to support others working further afield.
We hold services at Holmbury all Sundays except the 5th Sunday in a month and during August. The 5th Sunday and August services are in one of the Benefice churches - see our website for more details https://www.holmburychurch.com/.
Most Tuesdays and Thursdays we have the church cafe in the church room. here you will find people chatting, knitting, sewing, repairing items bought to the cafe and, of course, enjoying a fantastic cup of coffee made by one of our baristas.
On the 3rd Thursday of the month from 10.30am to 12noon we run a hear here Clinic supporting those with NHS hearing aids. No appointment needed, just turn up and we can help with batteries, tubing, general cleaning & advice.
We have been a Joint Benefice with the neighbouring parish of St John the Evangelist, Wotton, since 1979. The Benefice has recently expanded to include the other churches in the former Leith Hill Group: St James, Abinger and Christ Church, Coldharbour.
Wednesday November 19th we were delighted to have Rev Roy Woodhams licensed to serve Holmbury and Wotton parishes. Rev Roy lead his first service, of what we hope will be many more, on Sunday 23rd November 2025. A huge thank you to Rev'd Kia who helped us during the vacancy along with Rev'd Virginia, Martha & Hugh.
Our church building also has an interesting history. The church was built in 1879 by the eminent Victorian architect George Edmund Street and its architectural style could be described as high Victorian. However, as the only church in the village, we try to make our style of worship as wide-ranging and diverse as possible in order to serve the needs of every parishioner and visitor. We seek to do this through a pattern of services that includes both formal (liturgical) and informal approaches, through regular prayer and discussion groups and through our lively family activities. We extend a warm welcome to both villagers and visitors whether they are occasional worshippers or are seeking a deeper spiritual understanding.